Feb 22, 2012

Once a dominant force of rainy days and lazy Sundays, board games have been around forever and have not changed much over the last 50 years or so. However, tablets are the perfect medium to play interactive board games . Gone are the days of lost pieces and cheating, replaced instead with visually striking, high tech games that can be played on separate tablets allowing for greater privacy. A great example of this is the iOS version of Scrabble that allows players to view their tiles with an iPhone or iPod touch while a single iPad sits in the middle as the game board.

For strategy conquest fans, the tablet is a welcomed portal to formerly impossible territories. One KickStarter project looks to take advantage of this opportunity by developing an aptly named tablet-only “board” game, Conquest. This is a Risk-style game that pits two or more players against each other in an effort to seize control of a small corner of the galaxy. Each player controls a small fleet and goes around conquering planets and obtaining resources. One great addition in Conquest is that moves are only shown after every player has selected their action. This makes the game more realistic and keeps all the action happening in real time. Another advantage to being on tablets is that the “board” isn’t restricted in size or depth. Conquest takes place on multiple planets, each with territories as in Risk, but also in space, and combat can be initiated in either. Think of Conquest as a sort of Risk-Star Wars hybrid.

Games of this ilk are going to become more and more popular in the near future as tablets become cheaper and more prevalent. A whole new genera of high tech board games will break into the forefront, moving off the Toys’R’ Us shelves and onto online marketplaces. That’s why Conquest is so exciting and ambitious; if funded it could represent a dramatic shift in the way we spend a rainy day with friends.

Feb 22, 2012

Android may be a Linux-based OS, and a very powerful mobile operating system that can perform a lot of computer tasks, but it’s still a secondary device to a computer. Canonical, developers of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, want to bring Ubuntu to Android smartphones, and have announced Ubuntu for Android to help get this done.

The requirements for an Ubuntu for Android device will include many phones released in the past year: 1 GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, 2 GB of memory, along with HDMI output and a USB port. The idea appears to be to have it be something that will be a hybrid of both Android and Ubuntu, so users could simply dock their phone or plug in the required hardware and then boom, instant Ubuntu on a monitor. This is possible because Ubuntu for Android will use the same kernel as the Android build running on the device, making it possible for both experiences to exist side-by-side. So, when users use their phone, it will be a typical Android experience, but this will enable phone users to use their phones as a desktop when necessary. It will also integrate phone functions into the desktop OS, enabling users to read and write SMS messages and talk on the phone from the desktop.

This is a bold strategy, and one that will dramatically alter the phone experience, if not unify disparate experiences in one device. This could be extremely useful for tablets, as they are the typical victims of the gap between a mobile OS and a desktop OS – the mobile experience and feature set can occasionally be limiting to what a desktop or laptop OS can do. Hypothetically, an Ubuntu for Android tablet could be used to type up reports while on the go in a coffee shop from an app like Documents to Go, then set up in the dekstop mode at the office to polish and finish it off using desktop Ubuntu apps.

The concern for modern phones potentially using Ubuntu for Android will be that there aren’t a lot of apps built for the ARM processors that currently power many Android devices. Intel x86 architecture is coming to Android, but is still something that is “in the future.” Still, this could be the niche that these devices could actually launch with – the idea of a phone that is also seamlessly a desktop, and could run many Ubuntu applications on the desktop easily.

While this whole project is something that is just now getting off the ground, it appears as if Canonical wants to push this to phone manufacturers and carriers as well as the end user, becuase adoption of Ubuntu for Android will come more easily when it is something that the average user could go out and buy, instead of having to hack their phone to support.

Feb 21, 2012

Live Wallpapers look fantastic, bringing life to screens that otherwise are static and lifeless. It’s one of those things that Android owners can boast that they have that iOS owners do not. However, some of the live wallpapers are just random moving lines and patterns, nothing more. For those looking for a more substantial and detailed live wallpaper for their device, there’s PlanetScapes from Central Core Studios.

This live wallpaper incorporates three different selectable alien landscapes as a live wallpaper: Avalon Falls, Sunridge Canyon, and Northern Tundra. Each wallpaper is a dynamic view of the landscape, and fully animated. Each wallpaper also has settings to customize elements in it, like the rate of snowfall in the Northern Tundra wallpaper, cloud speed in Sunridge Canyon, and the camera panning effects when switching between home screens. This is a very high-quality set of live wallpapers, and while there are settings to decrease the processor hit they will take, a powerful device is recommended when using these. A free version is available with just the Avalon Falls wallpaper, and a paid version with all three wallpapers is also available, both from the Android Market.

Feb 21, 2012

For Android tablet owners who have a stylus and want to use their tablet as a pen-and-paper replacement, one solution is Quill. This app allows users to handwrite in vector graphics in virtual notebooks. There are various settings for different pen colors and thickness, along with undo/redo and manual erase tools. There is a fountain pen mode that makes the line darker depending on how strongly the pen is pressed down on the screen, simulating an actual fountain pen. Each page can be tagged with various tags, which is perfect for students who want to remember what notes on various pages contain. The app also has support for the active pens on the Lenovo ThinkPad, HTC JetStream, and HTC Flyer. Notes can be exported as PNG files, or as PDFs, and shared via Evernote or Android built-in sharing. Quill is available for $1 from the Android Market), or available for free under the GPL from the Quill Google Code project website. Quill does require a Honeycomb device, so Galaxy Note owners are out of luck for now.

In the glorified internet flame war between Apple fans and Android diehards, screen sizes are a real sticking point. Apple fans think iPhones’ smaller sizes are ergonomically superior to the bigger screens of many Android phones, and they think the iPad’s bigger screen is superior to the smaller screens of many Android tablets.

The latest source of derision from the iOS camp is the Galaxy Note from Samsung, the 5.3″ 1280×800 behemoth of a phone/tablet hybrid. The brouhaha seems to be split between two camps: one, the people who look at its 5.3-inch screen and think it’s massive, too massive for human consumption. Then there are those who feel like it’s big, but not necessarily too big to use, and the benefits of its size outweigh the weight. It is the focal point of the iOS-Android flame war, along with the derision over 7-inch tablets.

But it actually makes sense for this smaller size range, for Android phones and tablets to be five inches and seven inches respectively. The easiest way to stand out next to an Apple product is to look completely different. People who might want a bigger phone will look Android (and with some of the bigger models, it’s physically hard not to look). For those wanting a more compact tablet, Android is the only game in town, unless an iPad mini or iPod touch Deluxe comes along.

Really, where Apple tries to stand out is in screen quality, not necessarily screen size. The iPad 2 screen looks notably nicer than the Motorola Xoom, especially as it has a better contrast ratio. I’d rather watch a video on the iPad 2, just because it looks much nicer, despite the aspect ratio difference. As well, if reports are true, then the iPad 3 will boast a 2048×1536 Retina Display, which may be a bit overkill (and a developer nightmare if it doesn’t have enough horsepower), but odds are that the iPad 3 will have a screen that competitors will be rushing to keep up to.

That, or they just won’t. After all, they are only now just catching up on DPI on phone screens, preferring to go for wider landscape ratios and bigger screens than iOS devices – the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung is the only phone that can come close as far as DPI is concerned.

Apple might not have any reason to change the size of the iPhone. The iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS all outsold any individual Android model over the holiday season, despite being smaller than the average screen on any Android phone. Apple may feel that the 3.5-inch screen size is their preferred ergonomic design. Apps are designed for that explicit screen size, and it would be a new wrinkle for developers to deal with, a slightly larger screen size.

However, rumors of a 4-inch iPhone 5 have floated around the internet, and while there isn’t any proof of this existing yet like the iPad 3′s Retina Display. Steve Jobs may have had certain parameters in mind, but as was said when Apple was demoing Mountain Lion to press recently: “We’re starting to do some things differently.”

Feb 20, 2012

For people looking for a quick way to share a quick asynchronous voice message with another person, TinyVox exists. Now available on Android, TinyVox simply lets the user record their message to a virtual cassette tape, give it a title like writing on a cassette label, and then share it. TinyVox messages can be shared to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and even SoundCloud. As well, they can be emailed to anyone. Past recordings can easily be accessed, and in-progress recordings can be paused, or stopped entirely when finished.

What could this be used for? Well, it could be used for sending actual voice memos – Google’s voice actions support recording a speech-to-text “note to self” but this supports the actual voice. It could be used to make sure that a person gets a particular voicemail message. Emailing singing demos to producers? Sure, why not? TinyVox is free to download and use, and is available now from the Android Market.

Feb 17, 2012

Legendary game designer Tim Schafer and his studio, Double Fine Productions, have run a Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming untitled point & click adventure game. They asked for $400,000 to produce the game and a documentary on the game’s production; they got far more than that, over $1.9 million as of publication. One of the big questions with the game has been just what platforms it would release on. Thanks to the game’s, shall we say, budget surplus, Tim Schafer has confirmed that the game will be coming to Android devices. Just what Android devices is not entirely clear, because even they’re not sure yet, especially considering the game pretty much isn’t even in development yet. Tim Schafer says to expect popular devices to be supported – what these will be when the game finally releases isn’t certain, but this should prove to be a boon for Android owners, particularly as they could be getting a DRM-free version as well – something iOS owners can’t particularly expect.

Feb 17, 2012

SilverTree Media have become known for releasing their titles first on Android, then later to iOS; this has been true with Cordy, Sleepy Jack, and now Cordy Sky, their latest title, an endless jumper starring the Cordy character who has appeared in the other two titles. The game has some similarities to Mega Jump in the way that it has items that propel the player character further upward, though these tend to be along paths, and are not the entire basis for upward movement. In fact, players have a manual jump button, along with a double jump to use to go further upward. The double jump also pulls in any nearby gears, which can be used to help fly further upward.

The game is freemium, offering a short demo for free, and the rest of the game available as a $0.99 unlock. This unlocks both the rest of the game’s story mode, and an endless mode.

So, want to play this game? Well, too bad. The game is currently pulled from the Android Market. The reasons for this are unclear. SilverTree Media have not said anything publicly about the game, and related Twitter accounts have either said nothing or removed any comments about the game’s release. Attempts to contact SilverTree Media directly have gone unanswered regarding Cordy Sky.

The game does tend to suffer from some slowdown when playing it on the Samsung Captivate, but it runs perfectly fine on the Motorola Xoom, and pulling a game from the Android Market entirely seems odd if device-specific glitches are a concern. The in-app purchase unlock currently does not work at all becuase the game is not available on the Android Market any more, it appears.

There’s plenty of reasons to speculate why this may be the case – perhaps Amazon negotiated an exclusive release and the Android Market release was accidental? Perhaps the game was set to release at a certain date and was accidentally pushed to the store early? There is at least one review of the game that doesn’t mention any kind of fatal bugs, so this disappearing act from one of the most prominent primarily-Android developers is very strange.

Feb 16, 2012

I’ve always been a sucker for clean, minimalist user interfaces. For me, a phone home screen should be something that can be shown off even if that might mean a subtle loss of convenience. For a while now my main home tile has been completely devoid of the usual assortment of widgets, containing instead purely aesthetic widgets that add a small layer of class onto an otherwise pragmatic piece of tech. In this week’s Theme Thursday I’m going to look at not just a basic theme, but two more additional widgets that can bestow incredible power in making a launcher its own small piece of art.

First and foremost is the GO Launcher theme called “Touch.” This is probably the weakest part of my home page right now as the custom icons are not spectacular and the great background could probably just be found on Google Images. Small touches are nice, such as a simple, white app drawer, but I would not declare this two dollar theme a great value. Touch puts a white border around every app on the home screen which does go a way to delivering some great continuity, but it would be nice to at least have the option to disable this feature. For those using GO Locker there is also a free locker theme that works well and goes a long way to tie everything together.

Two great widgets that really break the mold from the classic HTC Sense UI-style of plastic looking 3-D widgets are Minimalistic Text and BobClockD3. BobClockD3 is a clock app that displays the time vertically with flat san-serifed text. While the customization options are thin, there is ample room for creativity. For those looking for a simple way to give their phone a facelift I would highly recommend checking out BobClockD3, and it being free removes pretty much any argument against it.

In total contrast is Minimalistic Text, playing a legitimate “Linux” to BobClockD3’s “Windows” this app gives total control over text display on the home screen. There is a myriad of display options here, ranging from time as text, to battery percentage, and even RAM usage. After some practice of the initially confusing workspace it becomes easy and fun to add text to the home screen and give it the truly modern look that it has been lacking.

So give it a shot, regain aesthetic control of the cellular domain and create a modern minimalist masterpiece that will turn heads and draw compliments.

Feb 15, 2012

Most of the KickStarter projects done here are just applications looking to make the jump onto Android, but AppTag is something truly creative; it breaks the mold by creating a physical game that uses a smartphone as the brain as well as a visual enhancement. This idea, borne from the mind of Australian inventor Jon Atherton, is to make a game that combines augmented reality with laser tag. This is done by attaching a special clip onto the rail of most NERF or similar toy guns and clipping a pressure density pad onto the trigger. The phone is held on the top of the back of the gun and displays an augmented reality with real-time stats and overlays on top of whatever the camera can see. This idea of allowing the whole system to be quickly swapped between guns is nothing short of genius, because it also makes the whole system very inexpensive.

The AppTag devices supposedly communicate between one another by using sound frequencies as opposed to bluetooth or WiFi. This makes the game simpler but I cannot help but question how efficient and reliable this will be. Another concern is the augmented reality feature. I have played a lot with augmented reality before on devices such as the Nintendo 3DS and the effect, at the most, was barely convincing.

Unfortunately, I have a hard time believing that a few coders, even from Australia, can pull off a better augmented reality simulator then Nintendo. But if – and it’s a big “if” – Jon and his team can get the augmented reality to just work well enough, this project is very exciting. Imagine playing an intense game of laser tag with a full HUD displaying health, enemy positions, and medkits or weapons. This almost begs the question of where NERF was all these years with their vast sums of cash and immense R+D team.

I remain cautiously optimistic about AppTag, but if it pans out there is no doubt I may be one of the first in line to order myself a pair.

Feb 15, 2012

Jealous of the Face Unlock functionality that the Galaxy Nexus has? Want to use it to protect apps as well? Then FaceLock is the solution. What this tool does is that it emulates Face Unlock from Ice Cream Sandwich, but uses it primarily for apps.

Users begin by training FaceLock to recognize them by taking a minimum of seven photos for it to learn what the user’s face looks like. More than seven can be added, which is best because of all the various lighting scenarios that are out there. It is possible to use the front-facing camera, but because it’s much harder to line up one’s face, this is decidedly more inconvenient. Use this only on a device with a front-facing camera.

So, does FaceLock work? Yes! It works remarkably well, recognizing faces rather quickly in decent lighting conditions when testing on the Motorola Xoom. When testing in lower light, when the Xoom’s camera gets notably fuzzy, the facial recognition tended to fail. It’s not a matter of caputring faces in low lighting situations to make it work better – the facial recognition just did not work at all. This could be an issue with the Xoom’s front-facing camera in particular though. The app does support password input as a fallback if facial reocgnition does not work. The locking can be set to be required each time the app is opened, to have it disabled once it’s been unlocked and the screen remains on, or to set it on a delay before it re-locks (only available in the pro version).

FaceLock comes in free and paid varieties. The free version locks Settings, Market, Task Manager, and one custom app. The pro version supports enabling locking for any app of the user’s choice. As well, a PIN can be entered instead of a password, and best of all: it can be used as the lock screen, emulating Face Unlock completely. Both Free and Pro versions are available now from the Android Market, and require Android 2.3 or later devices.

Feb 15, 2012

Chart topping English singer Adele sang “We could’ve had it all” in her song “Rolling in the Deep.” By this, she probably meant “all the GRAMMY awards” because she won so many of them, they were overflowing in her cradled arms. How does this relate to Android? Well, she now has an app for Android. The eponymous Adele app features the ability to view her official music videos, listen to track previews. There’s a community feature that allows for users to post comments to the app’s Wall, view a map of where fans are posting comments from, and to post and view photos from fans. As well, with Adele’s voice famously fixed, the app will list when new tour dates are announced. There’s a link to Adele’s official merchandise store to buy t-shirts, posters, and other memorabilia. The app does not link to the Android Market to buy her music, so users wanting to buy it on their phones will have to arduously search for themselves on the Android Market. What a tragedy! The Adele app is available now.